Shrunken Situation
by Nobrainsorbronze
Summary: Natsu and Gray revert back into children, so it's the guild's job to handle the trouble their worth, what with their outrageous powers concentrated in such tiny bodies. All while protecting them from the demons on the search for END.


**Hello viewers,**

 **This is a story I've written a while ago, and I thought I'd just put it out there, for your enjoyment. I just don't think that there are enough de-aged stories out there. So this is mine! I really tried to capture the personality of each character. Feel free to review and give me some feedback!**

* * *

"Gray and Natsu sure are taking their time with this mission. I mean, it's already been two days…" Lucy noted in concern as she sat nonchalantly at the bar stand with Mirajane happily working on the other side of it.

"I wouldn't worry too much, Lucy. I'm sure one monster is nothing those boys can't handle. Besides, you know how the two of them are around each other." Mira said in a reassuring manner, while drying the dishes at her disposal.

Lucy chuckled and nodded her head in agreement. "Mm, you're probably right! Sometimes, I forget how hard-headed those guys can be."

Mirajane giggled alongside with her. "You miss them already, don't you?"

Lucy instantly froze up and felt her face turn a light shade of pink. "H-Hold on! I-It's not like that! I mean, o-of course I miss them, b-but I'm just looking out for them, y-you know, just in case!" The Spirit user stuttered awkwardly, waving her hands in protest.

"You're like their babysitter then! So cute!" Mira cooed at the thought, which caused Lucy to bury her face in her hands in embarrassment. But before Mirajane could tease her anymore on the matter, but an abrupt loud wail stopped her.

"Everyone! Please, help me!" The small cries from the familiar high-pitched voice echoed throughout the guild and caught the attention of many of the members. They looked up and gasped in shock at the sweaty, flying cat carrying the weight of two small, exhausted figures in his paws.

"Happy!" Lucy exclaimed, quickly running to his aid, along with a large group of Fairy Tail members. Upon entering, the blue cat immediately ran out of magical energy and roughly crashed on the wooden floor to rest, sending the load he brought sprawling along the ground as well.

"Oi, Happy! What happened?"

"Where's Gray-sama?!"

"What took so long?"

"Did they beat the monster?"

"Who are these kids?"

The weary Exceed couldn't keep up with the pace of the rapidly thrown questions as he gaped desperately for air and space, deeply breathing in and out.

"Can't you people see that the last thing he needs is a band of people hassling him?" A small, white cat suddenly raised her voice as she stood defensively in front of Happy, who looked up at her in awe.

Carla took one worried glance at Happy before her face hardened back into her usual arrogant expression, stepping away and pompously sticking her nose back into the air. "Don't get any ideas. I, as much as everyone else here, would like to know what happened out there. For starters, where are Natsu and Gray?"

"Over t-there," Happy answered, shakily pointing his paw. The crowd's attention was directed towards the unconscious pair of children he dragged back with him. Their scratched-up bodies were unmoving on the floor, and their breathing was slowly growing more and more unsteady.

"EEEEHH?!" A mixture of surprise and confusion dawned on everyone's face as they stared at the apparent forms of their guildmates. The rose-haired one, assumed to be Natsu, was dressed with his usual white and black-outlined scarf snuggly wrapped around his neck. His vest covered a majority of his body already, while his pants had dropped loosely from his waist to his knees, exposing his black boxers. The raven-haired one didn't prove to be any better. His body came in barely dressed at all, with only his underwear to cover his privates.

"T-That's Natsu and Gray?!" Lucy exclaimed in disbelief.

"It does look like them, but a lot younger." Levy observed, kneeling down beside the pair.

"They're so small now," Cana said, taking a break from her drinking. "Even smaller than Wendy."

"GRAY-SAMA! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Juvia wailed in despair, bawling her eyes out. "HOW ARE WE SUPPOSE TO GET MARRIED NOW?!"

"That's what she's worried about?" Lucy commented underneath her breath.

All while the curious murmurs spread around, Wendy carefully squirmed her way through the crowd and knelt by the children. "Everyone, please stand back! I'm going to try and heal their injuries!"

People didn't question the petite girl's orders. They knew all too well what her incredible powers were capable of, and they didn't dare to underestimate her medical abilities. Hastily, the group backed up to the sidelines and watched in amazement as the gleaming, blue aura danced from Wendy's small hands onto Gray's body first, then to Natsu's.

 _This magic... It feels so familiar..._ Wendy thought in surprise as she concentrated her energy. _Where have I felt this kind of magic before?_ She shook her head in frustration. She couldn't think about it right now, not when her friends were depending on her.

After doing all she her magical abilities allowed, she exhaled in relief and tiredly used her arm to wipe away the newly formed drops of sweat on her forehead.  
"I... couldn't restore them to their original bodies, but I managed to heal their physical injuries. They're going to need a bit of rest first, but they should be okay afterwards!" Wendy's happy announcement was followed by a round of relieved sighes. But something that still hung in her mind prevented her from joining the crowd's early celebration. "Something was off..." Wendy mumbled thoughtfully.

Lucy's cheerful smile disappeared once she took notice of her troubled expression. "What is it, Wendy?"

Wendy looked up at the blonde-haired mage. "I... I'm not too sure of it myself. It's just that... when I was healing them, I was healing Natsu from a type of severe heat injury, while I was healing Gray from extreme hypothermia."

"EEH? That's not right at all!" Lucy exclaimed with Wendy nodding in confirmation. "Do you think that has anything to do with how they look right now?"

"Probably... But I can't say for sure..." Wendy said, looking over worriedly at Gray and Natsu's figures. At that moment, the two powerful mages both began to stir as their eyes slowly blinked open.

"Huh? Where..." Natsu asked drowsily, scratching the back of his scalp. "Back… at the guild?"

"Yeesh, what the hell are all these people so happy about?" Gray complained upon struggling to enter a proper sitting position while glancing around the loud room. "They're making my head hurt."

"Natsu! Gray! Y-You two should stay resting! You're injuries aren't fully healed yet." Wendy instructed them in a panicked tone, fearing for their well-being.

"Wendy?" Natsu squinted up at the small girl, oblivious to her advice. "When did you get so tall?"

"H-Huh?"

"You too, Lucy." Natsu interrupted, pointing at the Celestial Spirit mage. "I can see your underwear from here." Lucy became flustered at his disturbing comment as she yanked down her miniskirt to block his view.

"Now I'm definitely certain that's Natsu and Gray." She seethed in annoyance and unease.

"It's not them who grew, it's us who shrunk, dumbass." Gray said. The fire mage's eye twitched slightly at the insult. He was about to make a comeback, but he stopped himself when the details of the previous events suddenly came back to him. The mission, the forest, and…

"That's right! That demon bastard! I have to go kick his ass so I can get back to normal!" Natsu wasted no time and impulsively turned to rush out the guild, but his legs failed to respond to his wishes and he ended up falling face flat against the floor.

Wendy and Lucy's faces took on a concerned expression for him as they rushed to his side, while Gray laughed out loud at his misfortune.

"Natsu, your body hasn't fully healed yet from the heat stroke. You should take it easy." Wendy said kindly, offering him a hand.

"Damn it!" Natsu mumbled, ignoring Wendy's help as he shakily used his sore arms to push himself up. His eyes suddenly narrowed at the snickering ice mage behind him and growled. "What the hell are you laughing at, you perverted stripper?!"

Gray's laughing was quickly halted and converted to anger when he let Natsu's petty taunt get to him. "What else is there to laugh at, you crazy flame spewer?"

The salmon-coloured hair mage clenched his fists as a large swarm of flames began to surround him. With greater ease, he stood up and readied himself. "That's it! Let's settle this right here and now, Ice Pick."

Gray unconsciously followed his hint and arranged himself in a fighting position as well with sheets of ice rapidly spreading from his feet. "Fine by me, Flame Breath!" The two of them clashed their heads and hands against each other, both struggling to gain the upper hand.

The festive atmosphere in the guild immediately died down as the grand mixture of ice and fire quickly flooded the room and caused the guild members to begin panicking.

"Oi! Gray! Natsu! Calm down or you'll kill us!"

"They're going to destroy the guild we just repaired!"

"So… much power…" Lucy said as she struggled against the shear energy the small mages emitted from their bodies.

Gray growled between his chattering teeth, trying to ignore the stinging sensation of his own ice, nipping roughly at his own skin. "B-But first, w-would someone p-please turn up the h-heat in here? I-It's freezing!" The crowd of mages frowned in confusion at the ice mage's strange request, while pinning themselves against the walls of the guild to create distance between themselves and the brewing storm that rapidly began engulfing the guild.

Because of the lack of response from his guild mates, Gray shakily rushed over to the thermostat himself to increase the temperature accordingly.

But Natsu followed suit and checked his rival away from the temperature controlling unit before any settings could be changed. "Hell with that! It's already fucking hot in here!" The fire mage impatiently fiddled around with the knob, unaware of how the device functioned. "Where's the 'on' button on this stupid thing?!"

"Move it, hothead! You're going to break it!" Gray returned from the ground to knockdown the Dragon Slater and regain control of the thermostat, but operated the machine with a similar kind of clueless demeanor.

Natsu recovered, clashed foreheads with Gray, both showing no signs of releasing their hold on the now half-melted, half-frozen knob.

"Gray! Natsu!" Lucy tried to call out to them over the chaos they had created. But it was no use. At this rate, they really were going to destroy the guild, along with everyone inside. She realized the seriousness of the situation as she glanced at panicked guild members racing out the door, then back at her two shrunken teammates. _What should I do?_

Her call for help was answered by a figure that approached the guild door. Her shining armour showed great resistance against rough conditions built from the fire and ice mixture, and her dark red hair swayed side-to-side as she entered the frozen-burning environment casually.

"Gray... Natsu..." Erza's spoke their names gruffly, not fazed by the violent, unstructured weather pattern built from the young mage's anger. The S-classed wizard towered over the short figures, eyeing them with a dark glint in her strict, narrow eyes. Her presence was only acknowledged by the pre-pubescent mages when Erza used both hands to pinch one of their ears.

The magic-made tornado quickly died down, as Lucy watched the power-filled duo reduced to whiny, teary-eyed children in the minute Erza returned to the guild. Natsu and Gray were roughly dragged into a corner by Fiore's most powerful mage, where the anger in Erza's eyes drove away the fighting energy within the rivals, and left only fear in heir expressions, possessing them to grip onto each other for the sake of their lives.

"In the time I went out to get a cake, you two completely reduced the renewed Fairy Tail guild to debris and ice, put other guild members in serious danger, and destroyed the thermostat. What do you have to say for yourselves?"

"Natsu/Gray started it!" Gray and Natsu said simultaneously, pointing an accusing finger at the other. That answer didn't sit well with the armored redhead, as she knocked the both of them out cold.

* * *

"You didn't bring him back," The dark figure said as he sat coolly on his stone throne with his legs crossed and his head resting casually on his hand. While his other hand held a bundle of timeworn papers binded together with the letters "END" written on the cover.

Across the hell-shaped room, a pitiful demon entered and respectively bowed his head in front of the superior character as he spoke.

"My greatest apologies, sir. I underestimated the power of Master in his dormant form. But he's currently in a very vulnerable state. Another chance is all I need-"

"You've failed." The Demon King interrupted. "Mard Geer believes you must be punished for your failure." He snapped his fingers and summoned a series of thorny rose vines from the darkness. They silently snaked around Doriate's arms and legs, holding them tightly in place. The inferior demon could feel his several sharp thorns penetrate his body, all at once, as he hoarsely screamed in pure agony. The torment echoed through every inch of his body as he felt himself drawing into paralysis.

Using the vines, he tossed Doriate's barely conscious body harshly against the wall before he called back the rose thorns into the shadows.

"You've failed your mission to bring him back... But anyhow, Mard Geer believes that you did a good rendering his body in a weak form." Mard Geer commented, then looked down greedily at the book in his hands that began radiating a cold, dark aura. "With the excessive amount of power stored in his unstable frame, it's only a matter of time before the dark magic from his core is released. Then, Master... we will restore your soul."

Mard Geer's eyes rolled back to Doriate dangerously. "I will watch him. When the time comes, do not fail me again. Understood?"

The mildly injured figure gradually arose from the shadows and managed a nod. "U-Understood." Without another word, the demon darted out, coordinating the quickest path to the Fairy Tail guild.


End file.
